Dirt work has begun on a building that will house Fremont’s radio stations.

Work on a 7,200-square-foot building at Getzschman Centre along 23rd Street is expected to be completed by June. Walnut Radio, which owns KFMT and KHUB, will lease 3,600 square feet of the building.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Walnut Radio general manager Chris Walz said. “We’ve been in this building (118 E. Fifth St.) for 50 years. We’ve been looking around.”

Walz explained the company wanted studios that were in a high visibility area.

He said the studios will have all new equipment, signifying a “substantial investment” in the company and Fremont.

Walnut Radio owns the two Fremont stations along with KBLR in Blair and KOMJ in Omaha.

Dirt work for the building, which will be located on the east side of the center’s parking lot, has begun. The front of the building will face west, allowing it to better blend in with neighboring businesses, said Scott Getzschman, who is part of the GAPCO Inc. partnership that owns Getzschman Centre.

Components for the steel-framed building should arrive in about six weeks, he said.

While half of the building will be leased to Walnut Radio, Getzschman said the other half still is available. It could be divided into two spaces or left as one space, depending on the needs of potential tenants.

The building will be the second added to the parking lot of what once was home to Big Lots and before that Kmart. The first originally was built for Fastenal but later became home to Tin Lizzy Tavern and other businesses.

“What we’ve been able to do is take a building that was going to sit empty and revitalize it,” Getzschman said of the entire center.

“We really wanted to something like this in 2008 or 2009,” he added. “It was hard to make an investment when you didn’t feel confident (about the economy). We’re confident now.”